Oct 4, 2024
New Scotland Yard: A Gathering of Dust (2.3, LWT, 1972)
"Judging from the wound, the gun was fired from very close range; almost point-blank, I should think. Indicates the possibility of suicide."
"That's right, governor: he blows his brains out, crawls in here, walls himself up, throws the gun away, and dies laughing. That's cos he's got a sense of humour, he knows that a quarter of a bloody century later two stupid coppers are gonna go out of their mind wondering how the hell he did it!"
#new scotland yard#a gathering of dust#1972#classic tv#don houghton#bryan izzard#john woodvine#john carlisle#roger livesey#tony steedman#liz ashley#geoffrey toone#alan downer#russell napier#kenneth gilbert#bernard gallagher#barrie houghton#derek martin#david billa#I'm writing the tags for these eps put of order so this will make more sense a few eps down the line‚ but i do think this second series is#trying a lot harder to do new and different things each week; this one starts with the discovery of a skeleton‚ a man killed around 1946‚#in the basements of a factory being torn down. whilst investigating‚ the roof collapses and traps Kingdom and Ward with the skeleton; fully#a solid half of this episode is spent in this cramped space‚ as the two attempt to deduct what they can about the crime with just their wit#and no (then) modern forensic tech. Ward is also claustrophobic‚ so the exercise is as much about reducing his panic as solving the case#it's a neat twist on the usual format and i was almost disappointed when they were rescued. once out‚ the focus becomes identifying the#corpse and then understanding the crime. cue many old soldier types‚ including old fave Steedman (actually in his early 40s but always#looking older than he was) and legitimate film star Livesey; this was one of just a handful of tv appearances the actor made in his old age#as film roles became less forthcoming. it all ends quite neatly and not exactly unexpectedly‚ but it's a pretty fun outing all told#derek martin pops up as a worker on the construction site; he'd not long made the switch from stunt man to full time actor‚ having broken#his collar bone working on Elizabeth R in 1971